Abyssinian barbarity

Description

An Eritrean ascaro tortured and killed by Abyssinian troops; he was clearly tortured and slaughtered.
Cruelty episodes were very common during this war (also the ascari preferred not to take prisoners, when the Italian officers could not stop them), worsened by ancient hates between Ethiopians an Eritreans wich unfortunatly, more or less, still last nowdays.
DVX.

Recent comments

When it came to ascari in foreign service, this sort of thing was, unfortunately, pretty standard. Worth bearing in mind that there was considerable disagreement as to what constituted "Ethiopia" at the time. What am I saying ? There still is. Eritrea...

When it came to ascari in foreign service, this sort of thing was, unfortunately, pretty standard. Worth bearing in mind that there was considerable disagreement as to what constituted "Ethiopia" at the time. What am I saying ? There still is. Eritrea had long been claimed as part of the Abyssinian Empire, and had in fact been subject to that Empire (if unhappily) for long periods. As a result, Eritreans and Somalis in Italian service were regarded by those more-or-less loyal to the Emperor simply as traitors (whatever these men may have thought of the matter themselves) and those captured often suffered particularly bad treatment. After the dreadful defeat suffered by the Italians at Adwa in the First Italo-Abyssinian War, the Imperial troops are reported to have cut off the hands and feet of all Italian ascari prisoners (there were not too many - most had preferred to fight to the death), and left them on the battlefield to die. Whether the Italians captured were any better off is something of a moot point - most were simply killed by their captors. Best regards, JR.

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